Hmmm! Thought of doing a report after a while and this is one report I couldn’t finish off last year! Im really happy my second home is not in an urbanized area like Colombo and there are plenty of places to hang around whenever I visit there. Chilaw area (Pitigal korale) is known to have 999 lakes which belong to god “Thaniwelle” and few of them are known for their bird life. I will be posting few snaps taken at those locations and if I haven’t mention the name of any bird that’s because I don’t know it or can’t recall the name.

Madunagala/Mahapalassa is getting tourist attraction (both local and foreigners) due to presence of hot water springs. I have noted few recent reports in Lakdasun forum and stimulated me to visit there. When I was searching information about hot water springs, I could find some other tourist attractions of this area.

This is an isolated village completely surrounded by numerous mountains making it located in the bottom of a deep ravine. Badulla-Passara road seems to be running around this and a few other isolated villages. Namunukula-borne Loggal Oya flows between the border of Urumeethenna, the last village with main-line-supplied electricity, and Kohonawala before joining the mighty Mahaweli at Mahiyanganaya, making it further isolated.

The story behind the start of this village has many different variations. According to the folklore, they origins run far deep thousands of years backwards where the indigenous people of SL, the Veddhas, roamed this island at will. According to one old farmer, the leader of that Veddhas in the village was an elite archer. Once he won a contest of shooting an arrow through a golden ring thus getting the name “Ranpath Mudiyanselage” bestowed upon his clan. Surprisingly all the people in Kohonawala has that as their surname to-date. Everybody is called R.M. and their given name.

Following day we all got up early in the morning and had a cool dip in Kumbukkan oya and then packed our stuff to go. We started the journey as early as possible so that it would definitely help to avoid the burning heat. For the day three, our target was Navaladi hot water wells. Very first group crossed the river at Madamethota and thereafter no one was allowed crossing from there due to high water levels.

We started the journey from Petta CTB stand around 2PM on 21st Friday, 2014. There was a Rathnapura bus and we took it to go to Kuruwita. It was around 4.30 when we got down from kuruwita. Our aim was to go up to Erathna and stay there. However after getting down at Kuruwita, we were lucky to catch the last bus that goes up to Adewikanda which is the last point that public transport is available during Sri Pada season.

This was my ninth visit to sacred foot print and I wanted to do it in combination of two uncommon routes. My plan was to climbing up by Dehenakanda-Mukkuwaththa road and getting down from Udamaliboda-Deraniyagala road. As I have been at these two routes before I could guide my other two companions.

Hike for Humanity project is an innovative and inspirational project interlinking the concept of hiking and humanity. That is to help underprivileged school students on the annual hike of Old Cadets Association (OCA). To begin with the project the #HikeForHumanity Concept was familiarized on the social media as well as in Zahira College Mawanella.

ur First stop was the MalwattaMahaViharaya opposite the DaladaMaligawa. It is one of the major Buddhist monasteries of two nikayas (orders) of ‘Theravada’ Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Malwatte Maha Viharaya and the Asgiri Maha Viharaya are the responsible caretakers of the sacred tooth relic in Kandy.

Sri Pada Season is begun. Buddhist pilgrims and pilgrims of other religions come in millions to worship the sacred foot print. People who want to climb the summit within a shorter period without much difficulty choose the Hatton Nallathani Route. Because of that Hatton route get crowded most of the time. People who wanted to climb in less crowded trail which is much closer to nature; choose comparably difficult Eratna or Ratnapura trails .

Kukuluwa Temple is situated on top of Nirieli Kanda නිරිඇලි කන්ද (1500feet) in Rathnapura District at Ayagama (අයගම) area. There are three pathways to reach this temple; two of them are foot pathways. Even along other road also needs a good four wheel vehicle to reach the temple. Climbing to this temple is a nice experience and it reminds me the Kuruwita trail of Sri Pada. There for I decided to share my experience with others.

Madakada proposed reserve spreads to 400hectaer. There are two peaks in this forest named as Nambapana-නම්බපාන (296m) and Sapugaha Kanda-සපුගහ කන්ද (203m). Nambapana water stream/ Nambapana Ela-නම්බපාන ඇල flows from Labugama-ලබුගම area and flows through this forest reserve and join with Kalu River (කලු ගග). It is commonly named as Nachchimale Dola (නාච්චිමලේ දොල).